Texas company acquires Beaver Valley Power Station, other nuclear plants in $3.4B deal

AKRON, Ohio (AP/KDKA) — Amid a federal corruption case, a company that owns nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and northern Ohio, including the Beaver Valley Power Station, will be sold for more than $3.4 billion to an Irving, Texas-based company.

Under the deal announced Monday, Ohio-based Energy Harbor will become part of a newly formed Vistra subsidiary called Vistra Vision. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the deal and a majority of Energy Harbor stockholders support the move, according to the statement announcing the deal.

Vistra will not be buying Energy Harbor's two coal plants along the Ohio River, according to the release.

Energy Harbor is at the center of an alleged $60 million bribery scheme that federal prosecutors call the largest corruption case in Ohio history. They allege ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others orchestrated a scheme funded by Energy Harbor's parent company, Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp., to secure the speakership, elect legislative allies, then pass and defend a $1 billion nuclear power plant bailout benefiting FirstEnergy, an electric utility. Householder has maintained his innocence and closing arguments in his ongoing trial were scheduled for Tuesday.

The companies anticipate closing the deal sometime in the second half of this year, according to the release. Several federal regulators must still sign off on the purchase.